The Creative Universe of T. Levchuk's Cinematography During the Khrushchev's Thaw

The purpose of the article. The article is devoted to the creative and social activity of the leading Ukrainian Soviet film director, T. Levchuk, in 1953–1964: the creative work of the artist in the context of the specifics of Ukrainian film production and his membership in the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR were analyzed. The research methodology consisted in the principles of objectivity and historicism, based on the problem-chronological, specific-historical, descriptive, statistical and logical-analytical methods of scientific cognition. The scientific novelty of the work lies in highlighting the activity of the Ukrainian film director, T. Levchuk, during the period of the Khrushchev’s Thaw, using the archival materials of Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University, the collections of the Museum of the Dovzhenko Film Studios, critical articles and reviews published in periodicals, and memoirs. Conclusions. T. Levchuk’s personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian film production and professional arts education is difficult to overestimate: at his request in 1961 the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a decision to open in Kyiv Theater Arts Institute the Department of Cinematography, which had to provide training in the following specialties: film directing, photography directing and film studies; the result of his teaching activity was the education of the glorious cohort of filmmakers; his creative activity resulted in feature films «The Flame of Wrath» (1955), «Ivan Franko» (1956), «A Woman From Kyiv» (1959), «The Law of Antarctica» (1962), «Space Alloy» (1964), which need rethinking today.